When traversing through Yellowstone National Park, it’s always best to keep your distance from black bears wandering throughout the vast, federal government owned land.
In fact, the National Park Service advises anyone visiting their parks to stay 100 yards away from predatory animals like bears and wolves, and loosens up the restrictions to a 25-yard buffer zone when dealing with non-predatory animals like bison.
And to be honest, since people do not follow those guidelines anyways (and often get thrown up into the air like rag dolls), they should probably just make it 100 yards for all animals. I’m not sure the National Park Service realizes the IQ level they are dealing with…
We don’t necessarily know if the family in the video below was abiding by the guidelines or not. When you go on trips with family, you are supposed to create memories, and I’ve got a good feeling that everyone that was on the trip will never forget what happened on this trip.
Their family vacation to Yellowstone National Park turned into a living horror movie when a black bear walked right up to their vehicle. They at least stayed in their car (unlike some other “tourons” at Yellowstone) when the wild animal approached them, though they probably would have been better off driving on by and observing the bear from a distance.
Instead of doing so, they got a really up close and personal look at the black bear when it shockingly decided to lift its paw up and open their car door. As the father of the family was trying to snap a picture with his certified tourist camera (I bet he had tall white socks on too), the bear reached up to the door handle like it had done so a thousand times before and popped the door right open.
Screams filled the car as the family was suddenly face-to-face with the black bear, and though their minivan was likely spacious enough to fit the bruin inside, it would not have been a pretty sight to see if it had managed to get in. The man in the passenger seat reached for the door and pulled it back shut with all of his might as the driver slammed on the gas to get the hell out of dodge.
I don’t know what the National Park Service guideline is for when a black bear opens your car door, but I’d imagine they would say to do the three steps that this family followed:
1) Scream at the top of your lungs
2) Close that damn door back like your life depends on it, because it likely does
3) Slam on the gas like you are auditioning for the new Fast and Furious sequel
Make sure to remember those three steps if you ever find yourself in a situation like this family did (hopefully you don’t). You could also probably just keep your doors locked too, that way you don’t have to follow that chaotic process above. That might be easier…
You can take a look at how they handled the terrifying ordeal in the unbelievable footage below:
